San Quintin, Mexico:
Outside Yellowfin Tuna Elusive For Local Fishing Boats

July 15-20, 2005, Kelly Catian, K&M Offshore Sportfishing, San Quintin, Baja fishing, Mexico:

After finding the yellowfin tuna off San Quintin last month I thought it was just going to pop, but the fishing sort of fizzled instead.

With fishing water temperatures off San Quintin in the high 50s and a sick band of red tide hugging the coast from San Diego to Cedros, we were in the middle of one of the worst spring upwellings I've seen yet.

I've made numerous fishing runs outside for yellowfin tuna, all the way out to 60 plus miles with only yellows on paddies.

I had Sid Ochoa and group on the 10th and 11th and we headed out about 40 miles west and got into some good yellowtail action but no longfin or yellowfin tuna were seen.

San Martin Island has been our back up fishing spot with quite a few yellows showing on the north side and readily taking the iron, Rapalas, bait, etc. Also caught were a few white sea bass and lots of big spawning sandies and calicos.

Over the weekend of July 14-15-16, I had Noel Hulsenbeck and group on the new boat. We were heading out into some not so great looking water when we got the call that the yellows were wide open at San Martin so we swung around and made a 15 mile U-turn back to the north side where we were greeted by breezing yellows all over the place and eager to take the iron, with sand bass and calicos coming up on the jig as well!

But the best part of the trip was day three. Bill's buddy Wayne from New Jersey is an avid flat fisherman and proved it by landing his limit (5) of flatties from 15 to 18 lbs! We were drifting along the beach in Hassler's Cove on the northeast side of San Martin in about 5 to 10 feet of water and watching our macks get slammed by the sly halibut. We saw many fish larger than any we landed but still the action was nonstop. Every drift would have 2 or 3 takers! We ended up with 12 Halibut and farmed at least that many

Finally, I had Bob Rehfuss and his group from Big Bear, Calif., and we hit the halibut spot as well, where 9 year Lod Zack Rehfuss landed, expertly, 3 or 4 halibut up to 20 lbs. We also got some big calico bass as well.

The fishing water at San Quintin has improved A LOT since last week and the sun is finally out! The water was 60 degrees plus on the 6 fathom and 63 at 20 miles west of Cabo San Quintin.

The big Tournament is this weekend so I'll let you know how it goes, although the categories seem sort of weird. The guy with the biggest sand bass gets as much as the guy with the biggest marlin, tuna, yellowtail, etc. So why even go for tuna if you win the same amount for a sandbass? Who knows?

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